Party Planning Tips

Party Venues and Party Planning – Tips for Success

For most people, planning a party involves a lot of concessions. Party planners need to figure out where to obtain tent rentals, chair rentals, and table rentals, and how to have enough money left over for a sound system and a skilled emcee.

Whether you’re planning a bar mitzvah, a baby shower, or a reunion for your college sorority, some party planning rules are universal and can be applied no matter how big or small your budget is.

Keep reading for party planning tips from the experts — we will cover just the essentials, like how to communicate with your venue manager, create an event timeline, and stick to your budget.

1. How To Create an Event Budget

An event budget will be the basis of all your planning decisions. Knowing how much you can spend will help you decide your party’s venue, what type of catering you can afford, how much you can spend on entertainers and more.

Be realistic when you draft your event budget, but set aside a little extra money, too, so you can deal with potential contingencies. You may need to create multiple drafts of your event budget before finding a balance between your expenses and keeping your guests happy.

Visualize your event and be clear about its purpose. Do you want to promote something, educate people, or provide a colorful distraction? It helps to have a partner or an event planning team during the goal-setting process to help you realize your vision and create an event budget.

2. How To Create an Event Timeline

Now that you have your event budget set, it is time to create an event timeline. An event timeline determines how your party will flow, and it is essential in keeping your party organized. It will decide what time your guests eat, when team building activities will happen, and how long your party’s entertainment portion will last.

Creating an event timeline can be a headache when you are catering to the interests of many stakeholders, such as in trade shows and car meets. Producing multiple drafts and maintaining clear communication with your venue manager, vendors, and corporate sponsors can make things a lot easier.

You should complete your timeline three to six months before your actual event. Devise clear-cut roles and responsibilities for your event team members, create a strategy on how you’ll market and promote your event, and book florists, caterers, and event speakers in advance.

3. Communication Is Key

High school and college parties you attended might have made party planning look easy. But in the professional world, events take a lot of planning and communication to execute. Speaker conferences, trade show exhibits, and corporate seminars can function like parties in the planning stages, but they’re a thousand times more complicated.

Communicate with the senior executives and speakers you’ll be inviting to your event, so you know what venue to pick and which topics they’re open to discussing. Talk to your event team frequently to make sure they’re fulfilling their responsibilities and paying attention to all the little details.

Planning a Party?

Now that you are familiar with the nuances of managing an event, you shouldn’t shoulder its unimaginable stress on your own.

Instead of hiring just any company you find when you search “party planning near me,” hire an event planner with a proven track record of managing community events, weddings, and corporate ceremonies.

Call JCD Rentals today at 682.283.3445 for expert advice and cost-effective event supply rentals. We are a family-owned business with over 6 years of experience in managing events.